Hoda Ramzy, another student, was expelled from Al-AzharInstitute in Shoubra, today, for merely wearing a niqab. She and her colleagueswho face the same problems with the administration decided to file a complaintto President Mubarak in protest. On Facebook, a new group was launched to defendwomen’s right to wear the niqab at school. Their argument revolves around thefact that if you gave the right to “motabarijat” [i.e. the uncovered women] togo around freely, then you should give equal rights to covered women.

Onlocal state-owned media and independent media channels, the controversy overniqab is endless. There is a huge verbal battle between Salafi sheikhs andAl-Azhar scholars. The latter is viewing the niqab as harmful to society, whilethe former believes this is the ideal dress of the Muslim woman. Both have verypersuasive arguments.

I visited Alexandria couple of weeks ago. One ofthe most shocking scenes I saw there was the huge number of women in niqab. Someof my relatives wore it too. They are very convinced that this is how Muslimwoman should look. Some of them told me that to “show more gratitude to Allah,the creator of our precious bodies, we should be covered from head to toe withthree layers.” When I asked her who told her this, she said a Sheikh on Al-NasTV (one of the most popular Salafi TV channels in Egypt).

On my latestshopping tour, about one month ago, a newly married friend of mine joined me. Wehad not seen each other for more than a year. She is an ordinary young woman whohas always been open-minded and loving life. When she got engaged to her currenthusband, she wore the hijab (scarf) which most Egyptian women wear. I wassurprised when I saw her shopping for Abbayas (long baggy dress). She then toldme that upon the command of her husband, she will change her dress to wear theniqab. She is not convinced that the niqab is a divine order; but she “loves herhusband and wants to obey him.”

It is true the number of women wearingniqab in Egypt is increasing daily. Every woman has her own reasoning forwearing it. This is not a matter of question now. We are not arguing whether itis a basic right for women to dress the way they want. This is absolute and noone can deny it. We are not even searching for the reasons or key players behindthis unexpected change of Al-Azhar policy from the extreme right to the extremeleft. Everybody knows that Al-Azhar played a great role in fueling religious“piety” in Egypt over the past five years. They were pushed by the state to doso as an attempt to re-attract the already religious Egyptian public who werehighly influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood group.

The MuslimBrotherhood represented itself as an independent voice defending moderate Islamversus the state owned voice promoting another version of Islam tailoredaccording to the wishes of the regime. The political Islamist group succeeded inattracting a large number of supporters by emphasizing Islamic principles as thesolution for Egypt’s economic and political problems.

The question,which we all should consider now is why Al-Azhar scholars are not obeyed by thepublic any more? The simple and direct answer to this very complicated questionis because Al-Azhar lost its credibility in the eyes of Egyptians. Al-Azhar hasbeen used as a tool in the hands of the regime to satisfy personal and eliteinterests at the expense of Egyptian’s religious sympathies. Under the claim ofdefending Islam, Al-Azhar committed some unforgivable violations againstopen-minded intellectuals and fighters for freedom of expression and freedom ofbelief. They cracked down on Bahai’s for merely calling for the right to have anational ID card and other official papers that prove them being ordinaryEgyptian citizens. They also cracked down on Shiites and Sufis and distortedtheir image in an unacceptable way.

Yet, the most unfair and shockingviolation was committed against 22-year-old blogger and student, Kareem Amer.Kareem is now serving four years in jail for allegedly insulting Islam andPresident Mubarak. He wrote an article criticizing Al-Azhar scholars’ pledge toMubarak to be the “prince of believers” and how this will make us – the people/believers – deprived from our right to hold him accountable for corruption,wrong decisions, etc. Kareem simply wrote this on his own personal blog. As aresult, he was expelled from university, interrogated and sentenced to fouryears.

Al-Azhar now is looked upon as a state owned tool. It is nolonger the independent religious institution respected worldwide. That is whythe Salafis have the upper hand in the niqab battle. And that is why our societywill grow more and more extreme.